A new slant on growing tomatoes

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Tired of dealing with tomato cages?  Try growing tomatoes on a slope instead, suggests Tony Kienitz, who describes himself as a "vegetablarian" and is the author of the book, The Year I Ate My Yard. 

Plant the tomatoes at the top of the slope and let them spill down, crawling over old branches that you've laid out for them, he says.  Some of the fruit will rot on the ground, but most of it will be fine. 

"This is how the tomato is hard-wired to grow," says Kienitz, "so this method is natural for the plants."  You'll get sweeter fruit, too, he says.  "Gravity increases the sugars, says Kienitz.  "That's why cherry tomatoes are always so sweet."

Kienitz picked up this technique from a Columbian friend.  His friend's father was growing them that way.  It looked peculiar to Kienitz at first, but he learned this is the traditional method in Columbia.

One more tip:  Stake your tomatoes before they start producing heavily.  "The weight of the vines, when they get going, can pull the plants out of the ground," says Kienitz.

From Sunset: Grow the perfect tomato

Comments

[David Colker]

On tomato cages: here is a question from a complete amateur. I made my tomato cages out of wire mesh (with 4"x6" mesh), ending up with cages that are 4' tall. I staked them on opposite sides with 5' redwood stakes hammered into the ground. It all looks great. But here's the stupid question: now what? Do I tie the tomato plants to the cage as they grow, or do the plants naturally keep themselves rightened by growing branches out of the cage openings?

[Sharon Cohoon]

Tie two or three of the main stems loosely to the cage to get your vines off to a good start. Then let them do their thing. They'll grow out the sides and lean against the cage.